By Alicia Couch Payne
It is that time of year when winter and spring sports converge, making this a busy time at Buford High School. Basketball, wrestling, swimming, competition cheerleading and bass fishing are all in the middle of their seasons. Soccer, lacrosse, gymnastics, golf, tennis, track and field and baseball will be starting their seasons beginning in February.
Here’s a quick update on what is taking place in Buford athletics.
Buford wrestling is headed to the Elite Eight for the State Duals championship tournament on Saturday, Jan. 30, after beating Carrollton and Sequoyah at the Buford Arena on Jan. 23.
The Buford bass fishing team competed in the first GHSA bass fishing tournament of the year at Lake Seminole with 120 teams competing. Lake Seminole is located on the Florida/Georgia line. Three teams from BHS participated in the tournament with the team of Emilee Aikens and Peyton Rinker placing fourth, while the team of Avery and Samuel Shoemaker came in 17th, which qualifies them for the state championship.
Girls basketball is having a great season so far as they remain undefeated with an overall record of 15-0 and 5-0 in Region 8-AAAAAA. The Lady Wolves are No. 1 in the region.
Boys basketball has an overall record of 13-4 and is 4-2 in their region. They are currently in third place in the region.
The region basketball tournament is being held at the Buford Arena on Feb. 15, 17, 19 and 20.
Buford’s swim team has 11 swimmers who have qualified for the state championships being held at Georgia Tech on Feb. 2-5. The girls who will go to state are Caroline Church, Alyssa Hong, two-time state champion Caroline Irvwin, Mary Grey Shaginaw, Avery Shoemaker and Riley Smith. The boys headed to state are Lucas Cortelloni, Ben Irwin, Christopher Larrazabal, Landon Selph and Aiden Smith.
The competition cheer team competed in its first-ever virtual competition on Jan. 23 for the Peachtree Ridge competition. The team came in second place behind Lanier. The team placed first in a previous competition at Dacula.
Riflery has not competed again since early December due to COVID-19 shutdowns at the request of opponents.
Spring sports, with the exception of the golf team, are busy practicing for the upcoming season. Golf will start practicing Feb. 8. Both boys and girls soccer will have their first season game Jan. 29 at Blessed Trinity. Lacrosse, tennis and gymnastics will have their first competition during the first week in February, while baseball and track will get under way during the second week in February.
